Grade 1/2 Experiences at Rosser Elementary
Students at Rosser spent the last two weeks working on a school-wide project based on the book, “The Most Magnificent Thing”. Students also got inspiration from other books including:
Students began with an idea which they then developed through a planning sheet. They used a variety of materials to create their own individual ‘Magnificent Thing’. These were displayed in the gym on Friday, January 13th afternoon. I hope you had a chance to come by to see them. If not, here are some pictures:
On Friday, December 16th we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast with our big buddies from Division 2 …
and then Santa and an elf arrived …
After breakfast we began to watch “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” as we had finished reading the book two days before. We discussed some of the differences between the book and the movie.
Between Recess and Lunch we participated in the school-wide bingo that has become a Rosser tradition. The raffle baskets were also drawn at this time. After lunch we finished watching the movie. In the new year we will begin reading the second book in the series, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”.
Just before we left for the holiday break a very cold delivery arrived in the form of return letters from Santa. I hope you all had a happy and peaceful Christmas break. Happy New Year!! I look forward to our next six months together.
Reminder about the notice re: The Most Magnificent Thing project which was sent home that last week. On Tuesday, January 3rd we will be having an assembly at 10:00 a.m. to describe this activity to the students. For this project students will need to bring in a box that they will be transforming into something. Please help your child find a box for Wednesday, January 4th.
On Thursday, December 15th students created gingerbread houses out of Graham Wafer crackers, icing, and candy. Thank you to the moms who came to help us out with this fun activity!!! Here are the results:
The last week before the Christmas Break was a very busy one!!
We had a very lovely and sunny (but extremely cold!!!) day on Tuesday, December 13th at Burnaby’s Heritage Village Museum. We enjoyed all the buildings and exhibits, along with a fun ride on the carousel. Thank you to all the parents who helped us out by driving and supervising on this trip.
On Wednesday, December 14th we had our Christmas concert. Students performed in two performances: one at 1:00 and the other at 6:30 p.m. I hope you had a chance to come to one of the shows to see the students.
Thursday and Friday were also busy – please see the next two entries ….
During the week of November 14th – 18th we had visits from Ms. Brandi Price, our Aboriginal resource teacher. We spent three lessons that week learning about salmon, and its importance to the coastal First Nations peoples. We heard three different stories: Simon and the Salmon; The Salmon Twins; and P’esk’a. Students learned how to remember the five different types of salmon by doing a ‘hand’ activity.
They also were introduced to some of the shapes that are used in Aboriginal art, and the traditional colours used. For the northern coastal bands are red, black, white, and sometimes a bit of yellow. They used these colours to complete a salmon picture.
We learned about a few ceremonies and performed a salmon dance in the classroom. It was a fun week. We look forward to our next visit with her in the New Year.
We had discussions on Remembrance Day and why we commemorate this particular day. We looked at these two books.
Students created poppies. Some for our class wreath which we took to Confederation Park and laid on the cenotaph during our ceremony …
and some we did through a directed drawing lesson …
These were drawn onto white paper, outlined with black crayon, and then painted with red and green paint. Once these were dried they were cut, re-outlined, and then glued onto green construction paper. We had a discussion on complementary colours – those that are opposite to each other on the colour wheel. Red and green are complementary colours. This is why they ‘pop’ when put next to each other.
Other complementary partners are: blue/orange; and yellow/purple. Each primary colour has a secondary colour as its complement.
Some of these poppies are on the bulletin board in the office; the others are on the smaller bulletin board in the hallway outside the office.
We also had a great outing to the Confederation Park cenotaph on Thursday morning. The students were solemn and respectful; the Division 2 leadership students put on a great assembly; Mrs. Schwarz told some great stories about life in the wars; and the weather was spectacular. It was nice to see some parents join us for this outing.
We spent some time experimenting with colour theory by using the three primary colours – red, blue, and yellow – to create some interesting looking variegated leaves. We used leaves cut out of special colour diffusing paper. On one of the leaves students coloured it with the three primary colours using food colours; with the other one they used Solucryl water colour paint. Most students enjoyed using the food colours better than the paints, with this particular paper.
These leaves are placed around the bulletin board in the hallway which holds our bat pictures. These bat pictures are the students’ third bat drawings. We initially did two directed drawings of the same bat on regular drawing paper. The students then created this same bat drawing on grey construction paper. They could then add some background details that would be found in the Fall.
This is a programme from the Vancouver Canucks organization which focusses on personality traits involved with social and emotional learning. We will be doing several lessons over the course of the school year. We began our lessons by discussion some personality traits such as: kindness; friendliness; and perseverance. We read a book called, “I Like Me”, which is about a chubby pig who likes herself for being just the way she is – whether she is on her own or with others. Students then thought about things that they like about themselves – things they are good at doing, how they treat others, etc.
They then created wishing well art pieces with their written statement about themselves incorporated into the art.
I look forward to many more lessons over the school year.
Our Grade 2’s did a great job presenting their “I Knew It Was Fall …” poems to the whole school during our Halloween Assembly this morning!!! They managed to get over their cases of ‘nerves’ and performed wonderfully!
Well done, Blissany, Gregory, Jacen, and Talia 🙂
We had a great time this morning carving our pumpkins with our Division 2 Buddies!!!
These pumpkins were picked up at lunchtime by the wonderful volunteers at the Confederation train. I hope you had a chance to check them out there tonight!!
Be safe – Happy Halloween!!!